SPACE AS A PLACE OF REMEMBERANCE. THE QUESTION OF HOMAGES PAID BY SILESIAN DUKES TO THE BOHEMIAN KINGS (Przestrzen jako miejsce pamieci. W sprawie holdów ksiazat slaskich skladanych wladcom czeskim)

Places where Silesian dukes paid their homages to the Bohemian kings became an issue of controversy in the middle of 15th century. The council of the city of Wroclaw (Vratislav, Breslau) discussed the issue several times. The aldermen promoted their opinion that oaths of allegiance should be always sworn on the territory where swearing dukes ruled. This interpretation was broadened to whole Silesia. Earlier a place of homage was not so important. Usually dukes visited the king's court and their journeys itself were part of the ceremony of asking for a fief. The oldest act of taking of the collective oath of allegiance did not concerned Wroclaw, but Swidnica (Svidnice, Schweidnitz), where Sigismund of Luxembourg demanded the homage in 1420. Only in 1438 Silesian dukes swore their collective oath in Wroclaw. For aldermen of Wroclaw it was, however, a binding precedent. This interpretation was accepted by dukes themselves at the end of 15th century. Therefore in 1498 Silesian dukes, as representatives of a particular political area, demanded the king Vladislav Jagiellon to come to Wroclaw and to accept their homage just there.